Meridian broadens Midd's musical horizons

Author: Sara Jameson

With tremendous boldness and musical command, the renowned Meridian Arts Ensemble surprised and challenged its audience with its boldly experimental program last Saturday night. Covering compositions ranging from the vintage sound of "Ocho por Radio," by Mexican composer Sylvestre Revueltas, to the modern, and playfully moving, "Moo Shoo Wrap Rap," by Professor of MusicSu Lian Tan, the six-piece brass ensemble not only exhibited its true musical expertise, but established its inspiringly progressive attitude towards contemporary music.

Founded in 1987, the Meridian Arts Ensemble, consisting of John Ferrari (Drums), Daniel Grabois (Horn), Benjamin Herrington (Trombone), Brian McWhorter (Trumpet), Jon Nelson (Trumpet), and Raymond Stewart (Tuba), has performed extensively throughout the world, touring four continents and forty-nine states. Meridian's catalog now comprises eight critically acclaimed CD recordings on the Channel Classics label, with a ninth projected for 2007.

Meridian has commissioned and premiered over fifty new works, and has surfaced as one of the most important new music ensembles of the coming age.

Known for its eclecticism, the group features a wide variety of music, mixing classical and contemporary works, jazz and rock compositions, world music, and original works by Ensemble members. This musical experimentation was seen in their most recent concert at Middlebury-an aspect both embraced and objectionable to the audience.

"I was impressed that they brought such a formidable repertoire to their program," said junior Hannah Rommer, "though I think a lot of people in the audience were disappointed with the pieces, particularly in the first half. The publicity made it sound like they would play more jazz-fusion type stuff, and the modern commissioned pieces were a far cry from jazz." Featuring extremely modern pieces such as David Sanford's, "Corpus" (1997), Milton Babbitt's, "Counterparts" (1992), and Dafnis Prieto's "Echo Dimension" (2005), the musical program was infused with a challenging dissonance and rhythmic and temporal incongruity that made the music somewhat hard to relate to. Perhaps the program would have been more effective if more jazz or classical pieces that the audience could musically recognize were interspersed between the drastically modern selections.

However, the audience's patience and open-mindedness did not go unappreciated. Near the end of the concert, the horn player, Daniel Grabois spoke to the crowd in recognition of the challenging nature of the program and explained their particular musical decisions. "We are experimenters," he said, later thanking the listeners for, "sticking with us on this journey." After this explanation, the audience seemed to become a bit more understanding of the concert's radical nature.

"The horn player is right, though, when he explained that 'Beethoven was new once'," stated Rommer, "I didn't relate to the music very well, but I am really glad that they're making a point of performing new works."

Despite the program's mixed reaction, there was no doubt as to the performers' musical prowess. "The musicians were obviously very talented," stated Rommer, "and even if you didn't like the music you could enjoy just watching these guys perform."

The musicians manipulated their instruments with obvious skill, stunning the audience with their ability to play with challenging rhythms, melodic passages, and the ensemble's musical interactions. The percussionist displayed exeptional transitional talent, switching from drums, to tambourine, to vibraphone with incredible ease.

"I especially enjoyed 'Oblivion,' by Astor Piazzolla," commented Dorothy Mitchell '09. "For that piece, the percussionist moved from the drum set to the vibraphone, providing a very beautiful lyrical and rhythmic background for the rest of the brass players."

Overall, the concert was a rewarding, albeit challenging, experience. The Meridian Arts Ensemble proved their world-renowned status with the obvious skill and command of their instruments. By the end, and especially after Grabois's speech, the musical experimentation of their program became more inspiring than intolerable, and the audience came away from the performance with an expanded and enlightened view on the continually growing genre of modern music.